Michael Johns, the Australian-born blues rocker who favored Queen, got the boot on "American Idol" Thursday.
Though Ryan Seacrest toyed with him, reminding him that they didn't eliminate anybody last year during "Idol Gives Back" week, they did say farewell to him in the highest vote total of the season so far, 31 million.
Johns, the oldest singer in the Top 12 at 29, may have had his rock stylings overshadowed (or canceled out) by those of David Cook.
Like the other two in Thursday's bottom three, Syesha Mercado and Carly Smithson, Johns had been the recipient of the harshest Simon Cowell criticism Tuesday night.
Is America starting to listen to him? Seacrest asked him.
"I think we now have a connection," Cowell smiled, satisfied.
"I'm definitely surprised," Johns said.
He should have been. There were certainly some weaker voices in the pack, including Jason Castro and Kristy Lee Cook, who now has been immune of the bottom three for two weeks.
And to prove how wrong the choice had been, he belted out a version of "Dream On" that was better than most of the live performances on the bloated "Idol Gives Back" the night before.
Speaking of "Idol Gives Back," the totals were up to $60 million, Seacrest reported, with money still being solicited. In fact, all the taped celebrity encouragements that didn't make it on the 2 hour, 40 minute show Wednesday, aired on Thursday, including spots from Jim Carrey, Dr. Phil, Michael Chiklis, Ricki Lake and Zack and Cody (I'm betting Miley Cyrus insisted that no other Disney Channel stars could appear the same night she was on).
Every other leftover star, promoted to appear Wednesday, actually showed up Thursday in one of those song montages. Last year it was "Stayin' Alive," this time it was the Monkees' "I'm a Believer" that was lip synced by a mob that included Eddie Izzard, Cat Deeley, Rob Schnieder, Cheryl Hines, Felicity Huffman, Camryn Manheim, Kobe Bryant, Dr. Phil, and a bunch of people I have yet to identify.
The prime leftovers were the three Presidential candidates, whose much-ballyhooed spots ran immediately before they dealt with the bottom three. Those by Clinton and Obama were predictable and kind of dull. But the one from McCain, reportedly redone from one that ran in the live show Sunday that had audio problems, at least had a couple of jokes written into itL
" 'American Idol' is a lot like a Presidential primary election -- except for the people who live in Michigan and Florida, their votes actually count," he said, adding later, "As for me, it's back to work on my new immigration plan: Watch your back, Simon."
There were a few more clips as well, from Bono and Forest Whitaker, the latter of which had accompanying music of the Soweto Gospel Choir's version of U2's "Pride (in the Name of Love)" and Forest got the kids to sing the one song missing from the week, "We are the World."
Money is being raised by video downloads of the songs sung Wednesday and tops among them is the Top 8's version of "Please Don't Stop the Music." But instead of singing that one, they did the Christian one again, "Shout to the Lord," the gospel song sung by Ruben Studdard Chris tomlin and many others but written by Darlene Zyschech from Hillsong Church, which, like Johns, is from Australia.
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